Robert Van Scoyk
Robert van Scoyk | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Elseworth van Scoyk January 13, 1928 Dayton, Ohio, USA |
| Died | August 23, 2002 (aged 74) Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Other names | Bob van Scoyk, Rovert van Scoyk |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, producer, story editor |
| Years active | 1940s-1990's |
| Spouse | Leona Plotkin van Scoyk |
Robert van Scoyk (January 13, 1928 – August 23, 2002) was a television writer, producer and story editor active during the "Golden Age of Television" from the late 1940s until the late 1990s.
Beginning in New York and moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s, his credits included The Virginian, Banacek, Young Maverick, Flying High, Rafferty, Ellery Queen and Murder, She Wrote.
In 1979 Robert van Scoyk received an Edgar Allan Poe Award for the Columbo episode Murder Under Glass
Life and career
Born in Dayton, Ohio, van Scoyk served in the United States Army Air Corps during the last months of World War II. He attended Columbia and New York Universities and began his career in television by working as a pageboy at NBC studios.[1][2]
New York
At that time he was also writing a column for the Dayton Daily News, about life as a struggling radio and TV writer in Manhattan. New York gossip columnist Earl Wilson helped his career by regularly recounting van Scoyk's adventures in his own column.[1]
Van Scoyk’s break came when he wrote a script for NBC's The New Faces, a revue show produced by the NBC pages in the late 1940s. He went on to write for The Ann Sothern Show, The Imogene Coca Show, U.S. Steel Hour, Philco Theatre and Kraft Theatre, as well as Ivanhoe and The Betty Hutton Show.[1][3]
Los Angeles
In the 1960s van Scoyk moved to Los Angeles where he wrote, adapted, produced and story edited a wide range of TV series and made-for-television movies, equally at home with comedy, Western, musical comedy, melodrama, medical drama, mystery and detective genres.
He is perhaps best remembered for his involvement as writer, producer, executive producer and/or story editor for such shows as The Virginian, Banacek, Young Maverick, Flying High, Rafferty, Ellery Queen and, for the 12 years of its 1984-96 run and after, Murder, She Wrote.[3][4]
In 1979 Robert van Scoyk received an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Columbo episode Murder Under Glass, starring Peter Falk and Louis Jourdan.[2]
Death
Robert van Scoyk died in Los Angeles, California on August 23, 2002 of complication from diabetes. He was 74.
He was survived by his wife of 30 years, Leona Plotkin Van Scoyk, sons Robert, Andy, and Matt Tyrnauer, his father Robert, and sister Lois.[2]
Additional credits (partial)
(Also credited as Bob van Scoyk and Rovert van Scoyk.)
- TV adaptation of Kiss Me, Kate (1968) starring Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence for ABC
- Love, Sidney starring Tony Randall
- All's Fair starring Richard Crenna and Bernadette Peters
Template:MultiCol The Apple Dumpling Gang
| class="col-break " | The Doctors and the Nurses
Hernandez
| class="col-break " | Mama Malone
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
Wonder Woman Template:EndMultiCol
His other writings were represented in anthologies, including Best Short Stories of 1958, and he was a contributor to periodicals, including Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and The Humanist.[4]
References
- 1928 births
- 2002 deaths
- American crime fiction writers
- American television writers
- American male screenwriters
- American television producers
- People from Dayton, Ohio
- United States Army Air Forces personnel
- New York University alumni
- Columbia University alumni
- American military personnel of World War II
- Writers from New York City
- Writers from Los Angeles, California
- American male novelists
- Male television writers
- 20th-century American novelists